Op-Ed: The DWP of the UK have refused to release data about the impact of changes to the disability benefit system after a request under the Freedom of Information Act; they believe they should be able to choose what information they receive and when.

Using "section 22 of the Act" the department claims the data is reserved for future publication thus enabling it to be blocked from release.

Little wonder that the Tory government of the UK have their sights set on the Freedom of Information Act.

In the UK the DWP, Department of Work and Pensions, handles Social Security budgets, more recently re-classified as Welfare in order to sound more like a hand-out than a paid into scheme and a 'right'.

In Tory hands the DWP has been forced to slash benefits. That way of working is touted as 'austerity' needed following the global economic crisis of 2008 but it is more about Tory party ideology.

Successive budgets, during the five years of a Tory led coalition government with the Liberal Democrats, and one budget to date since winning the General Election in May 2015, have revealed there is always money but priorities have shifted.

Seeing Iain Duncan Smith the Tory Minister for Work and Pensions cheering George Osborne on during the July budget was telling. Smith looked like the devil would if he had just won a battle against the Lord-he was gleeful as financial pain for millions of families in the UK was announced.

But Smith also allegedly has blood on his hands.

This week DWP figures have shown that "2,380 people died between 2011 and 2014 shortly after being declared able to work."

A shocking statistic.According to a report in the Guardian:

Nearly 90 people a month are dying after being declared fit for work, according to new data that has prompted campaigners and Labour leadership contenders to call for an overhaul of the government’s welfare regime. Statistics released by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) revealed that during the period December 2011 and February 2014 2,380 people died after their claim for employment and support allowance (ESA) ended because a work capability assessment (WCA) found they were found fit for work. Ministers insisted that the data could not be used to link claimant deaths to its welfare reforms, but the figures focused attention on the government’s fit-for-work assessment process, which has been dogged by controversy in recent years.

Three-year-old Syrian boy found dead on Bodrum beach

The refugee and migrant crisis is grabbing headlines and rightly so but if the UK cannot or will not support its own citizens in their hour of need what hope have foreigners in trouble?

Many in the UK now take a blinkered 'I’m alright Jack' approach to life which is a classic right-wing stance.

I am not a migrant-I am not jobless-I am not disabled-I am not sick-I am not elderly!

While some of us may never be refugees life is ever changing and transient.

If people are deemed fit for work they lose money; they are forced to sign on as unemployed, jump through hoops to meet the criteria to get money and then only receive limited financial help and only for a limited period of time; is that how many are spending their last few days on earth?

When you read that﻿ Stuart Chester﻿, 25, who suffers from Down's syndrome, epilepsy and autism, plus is unable to feed or wash himself and lives with his mum and full time carer Deborah McKenzie, is being hounded it is criminal.

He has been ordered to prove he is unfit to work and must complete a detailed 20-page work capability assessment and return it to DWP bosses by September 18.

As there is no chance of his condition improving Stuart and his Mum have previously been told his additional benefits will be paid for life but will they?

Read: Victim's sister: The DWP know they are killing people - Telegraph

dreadful evidence about the DWP and its 'leader' Ian Duncan Smith. He should have been sacked years ago but ill not because he plays into Cameron's hand. Same with Theresa May with the useless Border Agency which let 250,000 legal migrants in in a year Treat to think how many illegal ones. Kept hate preachers for years from throwing them out. Same George Osborn was cheered by Cameron and his disciples for demanding another £12billion Welfare cuts while the Lords were increased to 826 costing at least £100million a year. 300 would be more than enough. What a saving.

Reply

Eileen

5/9/2015 08:33:29 am

Thanks Hannah

I know with each cabnet shuffle IDS survives-maybe he likes doing the dirty work others are not so keen on. What a terrible legacy he will have

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